This week, the
UN—that pacifist
bridge club on the
Hudson—co-sponsored
an international
anti-drug conference
in Tehran (of all
places).
Predictably, the
Iranians used it for
another opportunity
to blame Israel for
drug trafficking.

The Bible calls this
“bearing false
witness.”

Reuters reported
that 10 Western
diplomats sat and
listened to Iranian
Vice President
Mohammad-Reza Rahimi
blame the Jewish
state for the global
drug trade. Rahimi
made the following
points, alleged by
his superiors:

•The Talmud teaches
Jews how to destroy
non-Jews

•As “proof,” of the
Zionist drug plot,
no “Zionist” was
addicted to drugs,
according to Rahimi.
Anywhere. He offered
to pay if anyone
could find even a
single Jewish drug
addict anywhere in
the world.

•Doctors sometimes
kill black babies,
on the order of the
Zionists.

This madness is
difficult to deal
with, to say the
least. With all the
legitimate problems
in the world, the
Iranians focus on a
psychopathic
cocktail of
anti-semitism in
order to blame Jews
for every ill in the
world.

Added to this
mixture is news this
week that Yasser
Arafat might have
been poisoned—by the
Jews, of course—and
his body might be
exhumed. Proponents
of this view
conveniently forget
that Israel could
have killed the
terrorist a dozen
times over in the
years before Oslo,
but didn’t.

Arafat, vaguely
resembling a shaven
Dopey when he
emerged in France
for medical
treatment near the
end of his life,
cultivated his
cherubic, Seven
Dwarfs persona for
the West, at the
same time he plotted
to murder Jews
around the world.
Yet Israel is
blamed.

(A couple books come
to mind that shed
light on the
diabolical attempts
to libel and slander
the Jews: License to
Murder—The Enduring
Threat of the
Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, and
Nations United—How
the United Nations
Undermines Israel
and the West. I urge
you to read these
books in order to
understand the roots
of Jew-hatred.)

An interesting
backdrop for this
Blame Israel First
mentality is
playing-out this
week at the national
assembly for the
Presbyterian Church
(USA), where, by a
narrow 333-331
margin, “divestment”
was voted down. This
initiative calls for
entities to pull
investments from
companies that do
business with
Israel. In this
case, Caterpiller,
HP, and Motorola.

This slim margin of
victory is to be
celebrated (I have
several mainline
friends who have
done exhaustive work
to combat
divestment; they are
to be commended).
There are further
battles to fight,
including motions to
condemn the
“settlements,” and
to boycott goods
from the
territories.

This vote comes on
the heels of a
somewhat surprising
decision at the May
gathering of the
United Methodist
Church, as reported
in the Jerusalem
Post:

“The general conference of the United Methodist Church voted not to divest from three
companies
that trade with
Israel.

“Two-thirds of the
approximately 1,000
delegates to the
conference voted
Wednesday in Tampa,
Fla., against a
motion to divest
from Caterpillar,
Motorola Solutions
and Hewlett-Packard.

“The conference
passed motions
opposing Jewish
settlements in the
West Bank,
recommending the
boycott of products
manufactured in
settlements, and
investment
in the Palestinian
economy.”

Although there are
several reasons for
these slight wins, I
believe they also
arise from
pragmatism and
practicality.
Proponents of
divestment, leftists
of various stripes,
recognize that the
extreme leftist
mentality eventually
wears thin with the
wider audience, so
new strategies must
be developed. This
is not so different
from the shift in
Arab strategies
after the shattering
defeats at the hands
of the IDF: Arafat
was schooled by his
Marxist handlers to
become a
“revolutionary”
fighting for
statehood for a
disenfranchised
people, rather than
an upfront
terrorist. He could
dispatch his
killers, but would
shrink from overt
attacks himself.

Arafat even
ingratiated himself
with certain
mainline church
officials as far
back as the 90’s.

An interesting study
was done by the
Institute on
Religion and
Democracy, which
found that between
2000 and 2003, 37
percent of the
statements made by
mainline officials
concerning human
rights abuses
focused on Israel!
Notice this key
phrase:

“No other country
came in for such
frequent criticism,
though the US was a
close second at 32%.
China, North Korea
and Saudi Arabia
were not critiqued
at all.”

These people are
turning truth on its
head.

Yet they are taking
a play from the PLO
playbook, insofar as
they are refining
their attacks on
Israel. I see
Western leftists
shifting their
confrontational
strategies to more
subtle attempts to
weaken Israel. They
are now preaching a
concept called
“non-violence,”
which aims to
achieve Palestinian
goals via
“non-violent”
methods.

This means, at best,
that they work for a
so-called
bi-national state,
as opposed to either
a Jewish state or a
Palestinian Arab
state. This stands
in some contrast to
the blatant former
efforts by the PLO
to liquidate Israel
straight-up. The
bi-national agenda
is liquidation by
other means.

“Non-violent” means.

Dexter van Zile,
whom I believe to be
the premier
Christian researcher
in this arena, has
written a
fascinating article
on Sami Awad, the
Bethlehem native who
is currently
networking heavily
among American
evangelicals:

It’s quite a
fascinating look at
the agenda of the
man who has become a
friend of Lynne
Hybels, Mart Green,
and Gary Burge—each
a highly influential
networker within the
American evangelical
community. The
Palestinians, you
see, have used
connections with
their Christian
Palestinianist
friends to
infiltrate the
American Church.

Infiltrated.

It’s already
happened.

The left of course
has always loved
totalitarian regimes
(the Palestinian
Authority/PLO is
one), but until
recently, this was
the playground of
scholars,
theologians, the
media, and political
influencers. Only
fairly recently has
it spread into the
bloodstream of the
evangelical
community.

Just after World War
I, the ACLU was
formed by the likes
of Roger Baldwin, an
atheist, with Harry
F. Ward serving as
the group’s first
chairman. Ward was a
Methodist minister
who warmly supported
Soviet Communism. In
his book, Dupes,
Paul Kengor says of
Ward:

“Put simply, the
Reverend Ward may
well have been the
single greatest
sucker in the entire
history of the
American Religious
Left.”

He had plenty of
company, and I find
it fascinating that
the Palestinians are
following the same
model taught by the
Soviets decades ago:
infiltrate and
destroy from within.

The Soviets used a
variety of methods
to accomplish their
goal of
bringing-down
America, including
newspapermen like
Frank Marshall
Davis, who wrote
race-baiting stuff
(and, to show his
versatility, a porn
novel) and gained
support for the
Communist Party USA
from prominent
left-wing American
pastors, such as
Walter Russell
Bowie.

Interestingly, the
race-baiting whipped
up by the Soviets is
quite similar to
that being pushed
today by the current
American president
and his friends, who
specifically embrace
Black Liberation
Theology.

BLT is a concept by
which other
“oppressed groups”
(hint: Palestinians)
aim to throw off the
shackles of their
slave-masters
(Israel) and step
into the light of
freedom. And what
did the Civil Rights
movement preach?

Non-violence.

When Arafat and his
cronies realized
that body parts
shown on the evening
news were bad for
their image, they
began to develop the
concept of
Palestinian
non-violence. That
is what is being
preached in
evangelical churches
across America right
now. The
Palestinians are
following the
identical model of
the Leninists a
couple generations
ago, and not only
are they good at it,
they are winning.

That’s right, I
said, winning.

The situation is
growing dire, I
believe. A
generation ago,
these were things
only discussed in
seminaries, but now
those seminarians
have grown up and
are in turn
mentoring other
seminarians.

(By the way, Rick
Warren, no friend of
Israel or her
Christian Zionist
friends, has a
doctorate from the
thoroughly liberal
Fuller Theological
Seminary. “Pastor
Rick” is also mentor
to untold numbers of
young evangelical
leaders, and he
currently has 656,
851 followers on
Twitter, most of
whom eagerly
re-tweet his
messages—whether
they be birthday
greetings to aging
rockstars, or
suggestions to
“unfollow” the
“twits” who dare to
criticize him.
Pastor Rick’s
Saddleback Church is
a member of the
Southern Baptist
Convention.)

Just sayin’.

In his (in)famous
1993 book, The
Scandal of the
Evangelical Mind,
Mark Noll (then
professor at
Wheaton, now at
Notre Dame) barely
concealed his
contempt for
Bible-believing
Christians, many of
whom support Israel.
He used his own
propaganda
techniques to
denigrate this
community.

Citing Dwight
Wilson’s 1977 book,
Armageddon Now!,
Noll wrote that
Wilson had “expertly
summarized a dismal
tale,” in which the
historian took to
task Bible prophecy
proponents who
embrace “the
supposed restoration
of Israel.”

Supposed
restoration!

My friends, when
acclaimed historians
deny history, you
know the jig is up.

This type of
revisionism is being
used to great effect
by Christian
Palestinianists. It
is another weapon in
their non-violence
arsenal, which grows
more deadly by the
day.

Sometimes,
especially in my own
writings, one can
get the impression
that all is doom and
gloom. The engulfing
of the culture by
Emergent philosophy
is a serious
problem. Young
“millennials” are
being targeted to
give their
allegiance to the
Palestinians. Israel
continues to be
squeezed from every
side.

But I’m attending
the Lamb & Lion
Annual Bible
Conference this
weekend, north of
Dallas, and the
theme is “Israel in
the End Times.” What
a terrific
gathering!

I arrived last night
just in time to hear
David Reagan give a
rousing opening
address, as he
highlighted the
prophecies fulfilled
by the modern state
of Israel. Dave is a
liberal theologian’s
worst nightmare, and
represents much of
the good that is
going on among pro
Israel supporters.
And each speaker
here is terrific:
Jeff Seif, Bill
Koenig, Mark
Hitchcock, Gary
Frazier, and Arnold
Fruchtenbam.

An additional
delight has been the
music of Jack
Hollingsworth and
Ted Pearce, who
prove that there are
brilliant
alternatives to the
sludge played at the
“evangelical”
conferences
targeting
millennials.

You would do
yourself a favor by
checking out
www.lamblion.com,
and avail yourself
of the resources.
Dave’s “A Prophetic
Manifesto” pamphlet
made available at
this conference is
sobering, but
needed.He discusses
the reasons we have
biblical ignorance
in this country, and
that is has led to
the “un-doing of
doctrine.” A
brilliant
observation.

If there’s one thing
the Emergents
hate—besides
Israel—it’s
doctrine. They tell
us it isn’t
necessary, that the
point is to
“experience” God.
The result is that,
as Dave says, “the
term evangelical has
lost its meaning.”

I appreciated Dave
mentioning in his
address last night
the astonishing
Israeli hostage
rescue at Entebbe.
The anniversary of
the raid is this
week (July 4), and
is but one example
of the amazing
protection God is
bringing His people
even today.

At the moment, I am
listening to the
great Bill Koenig
(Koenig’s
International News).
As the only White
House correspondent
who is pro Israel,
Bill is in a key
position. He is also
a terrific speaker.
He is making some
fascinating points,
discussing the
scourge of
Replacement
Theology.

Essentially, Bill is
saying that it’s as
if in the
evangelical
community, we are on
different planets—so
difficult is it to
reach people with
the reality of
Israel’s
significance.

Bill said that a
very small
percentage of the
Church gets Israel.
He estimates that 65
percent of the
Church is into
Replacement
Theology.
Staggering!

He has been able to
place copies of his
book, Eye to Eye,
with Rahm Emmanuel,
George W. Bush,
David Axelrod,
George Mitchell
and…Jimmy Carter!

Lamb & Lion’s staff
did a superb job in
making this
conference a rousing
success for the
attendees. It was
perhaps the
best-organized
conference I’ve ever
attended, and the
Saturday night
banquet was
wonderful.

The reality is this:
fewer pastors are
teaching Bible
prophecy; the
Emergents are far
down the road in
their hijacking of
churches;
Church-Growth
proponents like Rick
Warren continue to
marginalize Bible
prophecy teaching.

However…

When articulate
spokesmen like Dave
Reagan, Mark
Hitchcock, Gary
Frazier, Joel
Rosenberg, and
several others
continue to speak
and research and
write, we can rest
easy that we are
just where we’re
supposed to be. Add
to that new voices
like Brian Thomas of
Blessings to Israel
Ministries (www.blessingstoisrael.com)
and I see that
teaching about
Israel and prophecy
is still very much
alive.

If Dave Reagan’s
powerhouse final
address at the
conference, in which
he put his shoulder
into the subject of
Replacement
Theology, is any
indication, Israel
still has friends in
high places.

Late in the evening
of March 4, 1975,
members of a PLO
terror group landed
on the beach at Tel
Aviv and made their
way to the Savoy
Hotel, where they
took hostages.

The siege lasted
until the next day.
The usual demands
were issued: the
release of other
terrorists from
prison; with no
deal, the hostages
would be executed.

As they have so many
times, members of
Israel’s elite
counter-terrorism
unit, Sayaret
Matkal, stormed the
hotel the next
morning. In the
ensuing firefight,
seven of eight
terrorists were
killed. Eight
hostages were
killed, along with
three Israeli
troops. To this day,
the Savoy is a
bitter pill for
Israel to swallow.

Eventually, after
the spectacular
rescue mission at
Entebbe a year
later, and after the
cold peace with
Egypt, and the
Lebanon War of 1982,
followed by the
so-called Intifada,
the debacle known as
Oslo was hatched. By
now, most of us know
that the infamous
Oslo Accords aimed
to bring peace in
the Arab-Israeli
conflict.

Sadly, our diplomats
and political
leaders—almost all
of whom are not
Bible-believers—have
put the squeeze on
Israel for 20 years.
The reasoning goes
that if we can only
understand the root
cause of terror, we
can eradicate it. In
other words, justice
for all people will
achieve peace.

Somebody should tell
that to Muslims.

The folly of Oslo
and subsequent
failed strategies is
that most do not
grasp what Islam is,
a war religion. It
is an ideology bent
on conquering the
infidels—anyone who
is not Muslim.

This is painfully,
easily documented.
The cause-and-effect
of Islam is as plain
as the nose on one’s
face. Yet our
leadership is
willfully ignorant
of this fact.

Two events this week
are tragic reminders
that the policies of
“peace” that have
exhausted all of us
are total failures.
According the a
Reuters story
earlier this week:

“KABUL (Reuters) -
Elite Afghan police
backed by
NATO
forces ended a
12-hour siege on
Friday at a popular
lakeside hotel
outside
Kabul,
leaving at least 20
dead after
Taliban
gunmen stormed the
lakeside building,
bursting into a
party and seizing
dozens of hostages.

The night-time
assault on the hotel
with
rocket-propelled
grenades, suicide
vests and machine
guns again proved
how potent the
Islamist insurgency
remains after a
decade of war.”

At least a dozen
civilians, two hotel
guards, and a
policeman were
killed in the
firefight. Five
terrorists were
killed.

(Get this: besides
watching their
hostages closely,
the Taliban
terrorists also
searched for
“illegal” stocks of
wine. If you have
wondered what Sharia
law is, there’s your
answer. Islam in its
purist form is a
totalitarian
nightmare,
suffocating any form
of freedom of
thought.)

An example of how
deluded the
political global
leadership is came
from the president
of Afghanistan,
Hamid Karzai, who
rationalized that
because the
terrorists targeted
civilians and not
soldiers, it exposed
the whole affair as
“a sign of defeat
for the enemies of
Afghanistan.”

This is routine
rhetoric for
political leaders,
but I don’t think
this kind of
hackneyed propaganda
works anymore.

The attack wasn’t a
sign of defeat. It
was a sign that the
Taliban is growing
stronger. Why not
attack them and
destroy them
completely, rather
than whisper “signs
of defeat” and then
run back into your
compound?

Has any Western
country actually
tried to win a war
in the last 67
years? The Israelis
seem to be the only
ones to actually
try, and their
record is pretty
good.

Israel is losing the
propaganda war, of
course, and we need
to be upfront about
that.

The second event
this week to grab my
attention was the
barrage of rockets
from Hamas in Gaza.
More than 130 landed
in Israel, and here
was the kicker: nary
a peep from the
media.

I did read quite a
lot about the tiny
fire allegedly set
at a West Bank
mosque, by Israeli
citizens (the world
calls them,
contemptuously,
“settlers”). This
tracked on Yahoo
News! and others all
day Wednesday. I
found out about the
huge story of the
rocket attacks via
Twitter and the IDF
spokesman.

Doesn’t that say a
lot?

More specifically,
the Christian
Palestinianists in
America (folks like
Brian McLaren, Lynne
Hybels, Jim Wallis,
Shane Claiborne, and
others) said not one
word about the
rocket attacks. They
do take every—and I
mean,
every—opportunity to
bash Israel.

Why the silence? Can
anybody justify it?

Why do those who
purport to be
humanitarians and
social justice
advocates go silent
when Jews are being
attacked and
murdered? I call on
the aforementioned
Christian
Palestinianists to
answer and explain
why they engage in
disproportionate
condemnations of
Israel…while the
Palestinians
continue to shoot,
stab, bomb, and
stone Jews.

This collective
moral failure is
grotesque,
outrageous, and
profoundly shameful.
The Almighty has
specifically said in
His Word that He
will deal harshly
with the nations,
specifically because
they mistreated the
Jews.

Those of you who
find it repulsive
that the Christian
Palestinianists
pile-on Israel while
peddling PLO
propaganda have a
right to hear from
them: why the
silence? It is
silence in the face
of the real root of
terror that has
brought us to this
global threat from
jihad.

There are several
realities on the
ground in Israel
that show us clearly
the global community
is ineffective in
trying to bring
peace between Arabs
and Jews.

The Meir Amit
Intelligence and
Terrorism
Information Center
this week brought an
interesting fact to
light:

The website of the
Jerusalem Brigades,
the
military-terrorist
wing of the
Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, recently
posted pictures from
the end-of-the-year
party held at one of
its affiliated
kindergartens in the
Gaza Strip. The
children put on a
display in which
they pretended to be
armed Palestinian
terrorist
operatives,
Palestinian
prisoners and
Israelis.”

A teacher at the
school emphasized
the “need” to teach
children jihad, and
the idea of
“resistance.”

(Do they know Israel
supplies their
electricity?)

One of the children
was interviewed and
said:

“When I grow up,
I want to get on a
bus with lots of
Zionists and blow
myself up in a
suicide bombing
attack and kill
them..."

This according to
the Jerusalem
Brigades website and
Hamas' PALDF forum.

Among others, for
years Hillary
Clinton, as the top
American diplomat,
has “strongly” urged
the Palestinians to
remove such teaching
from school
curriculum. This
demand stretches
back 20 years, to
the disastrous Oslo
Accords.

The Palestinians
have never complied
and by the way, I
call on all American
religious leaders,
such as Lynne
Hybels, Jim Wallis,
and Shane Claiborne
(I could name dozens
more) to publicly
repudiate this
ghastly form of
child abuse,
xenophobia, and
anti-semitism.

I have toured the
Meir Amit facility
north of Tel Aviv,
and seen the tragic
school notebooks,
drawings, and toys
that show clearly
the Palestinian
youth are taught to
glorify death and
murder.

Here is the point:
until the
international
community gets
serious about
holding the
Palestinians
accountable, we will
actually continue to
move away from
realistic chances
for peace.

Also, last month,
specialists at West
Point’s Combating
Terrorism Center
released English
translations of some
documents captured
at Osama Bin Laden’s
Pakistan hideout.
Among other things,
the documents reveal
that Al-Qaeda is
coordinating with a
Gaza Strip group
called the Army of
Islam.

This chilling
revelation tells us
that the most lethal
terror groups in the
world are a direct
internal threat to
Israel. By
extension, they are
a threat to the rest
of us (some of my
local National Guard
friends have
operated in the
Sinai in the past
few years, so this
news impacts very
close to home).

One of the documents
reveals that the
Army of Islam was
asking Al-Qaeda
leadership if it is
permissible under
Islamic law for them
to accept
operational funding
from outside groups,
including—and this
perhaps for comic
effect—the “infidel”
Shi’ite state of
Iran.

Do you see? This
Islamic version of
the Hatfields and
McCoys can certainly
come together when
working to kill
Israelis and
Americans.

For context, you
should know that the
above document dates
from 2006 and,
according to the
Israelis, the Army
of Islam has
“considerable
operative
capabilities,” and
two of its
operatives were
involved in the
kidnapping of Gilad
Shalit.

The Army of Islam
was also
involved—knock,
knock, knock, Lynne
Hybels, Jim Wallis,
and Shane
Claiborne—according
to the Hosni Mubarak
government in Egypt
of being involved in
a terror attack on a
Coptic church in
Alexandria in 2011.

Do any evangelicals
who support the
Palestinians decry
Palestinian abuse of
Copts? Aren’t they
Christians, too? Or
do they count?

Is anybody
listening? The
segment of
Palestinian society
that is radicalized
is of course an
existential threat
to the rest of us,
but let’s be honest:
they are also a
threat to
themselves. Can you
imagine living in
this kind of
hate-filled
environment? Can you
imagine the
psychological damage
inflicted by these
terror groups on
their own people?

I cannot. I can only
grieve for them,
reduced to living in
that kind of
emotional squalor.
If the international
community doesn’t
care about Jews, do
they really care
about Arabs? Why
does our diplomatic
corps pacify the
Palestinian
Authority/PLO?

Finally, another
hair-raising
development is being
reported by my
friend, the Italian
journalist Giulio
Meotti, who wrote
this week for Arutz
Sheva that the
campaign to erase
Hebrew and Christian
history is in
full-swing by the
Palestinians. This
is one of the most
odious efforts going
on today in this
arena, and the rest
of us should be
outraged.

According to Meotti:

“At UNESCO’s next
session, which will
run from June 24th
to July 6th in St.
Petersburg, the UN
cultural body will
assess the
Palestinian request
for admission of the
“Birthplace of
Jesus: Church of the
Nativity and the
Pilgrimage Route,
Bethlehem” to the
list of world
heritage sites.

“The Christian
shrine will become
Palestine’s first
world heritage site.

“Next in line is the
Hevron’s Cave of the
Patriarchs.”

Where is the
outrage? Since
Yasser Arafat
arrived in Israel
two decades ago, a
systematic effort
has been underway to
remove Jewish
history from the
land. This absurd
reality has been
allowed to continue
(Bill Clinton heard
Arafat deny there
were ever Jewish
temples on the
Temple Mount, and
the man who had sat
under the Southern
Baptist teaching of
W.O. Vaught Jr. no
doubt just sat there
and bit his lower
lip).

American diplomats,
political
operatives, and
religious leaders
have let it go on.

Do you understand
that if they deny
Jewish history they
are also denying
Christian history?

Do religious leaders
like Rick Warren,
Bill Hybels, John
Ortberg, and John
Spong think this
through? Spong, who
champions his own
efforts to combat
anti-semitism (he
says this with a
straight face) also
relegates the Hebrew
scriptures to the
realm of myth. Is he
not aware that one
can’t get more
anti-semitic than
that?

I worry about
something else:
facts are on the
side of those of us
who support Israel,
yet the “millennial
generation” is not
so moved by facts.
They are moved by
experience and
feelings and
narrative (the
latter of course can
be pregnant with
lies, but they seem
unaware of that). As
Meotti puts it:

“The Palestinians
are trying to erase
any trace of Jewish
history in Judea and
Samaria. Yet a few
days ago Israeli
archaeologists
discovered a seal
bearing the name
“Bethlehem” in
ancient Hebrew
script from First
Temple times, one of
the most important
pieces of physical
evidence
supporting
the Jewish claim to
the town before it
became revered as
the birthpace of
Jesus.”

Are Claiborne, Bob
Roberts (senior
pastor, NorthWood
Church, Keller, TX),
Joel Hunter, and
Tony Campolo aware
they are being used
as stooges by the
Palestinians when
they appear at
Christ at the
Checkpoint? Do they
realize they are
part of a diabolical
effort to erase
their own religious
heritage? Don’t you
find that profoundly
ironic and sick?

Mustafa Barghouti, a
so-called moderate
in the Palestinian
authority, said in
2009 that Jesus “is
the first
Palestinian who was
tortured in this
land.”

Hello? Is this thing
on?

What in the world
has happened to our
world? Truth is lie
and lie is truth.
Our own Christian
leadership in
America cannot
discern good from
evil.

Meotti also makes
the following
salient points (the
entire article can
be read at:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11770#.T9ypf7-shXX)

“There is a growing
global network of
Islamophile
Christians with
organizations like
Amos Trust,
Christian Aid,
Sabeel, Living
Stones, World
Council of Churches,
and influential
bishops and pastors
like Mitri Raheb,
Stephen Sizer, Elias
Chacour, Naim Ateek
and Michael Prior.

“It doesn’t matter
that Jesus was not
born a Christian,
but a Jew, and that
Bethlehem was a
Jewish town in
Judea, not a Muslim
one - because there
was no Christianity
before his death and
certainly
no Islam for
hundreds of years
after his death.

“It doesn't matter
that the Palestinian
Authority persecuted
Arab Christians in
its midst.”

You know what? I
think he’s right. I
don’t think these
things matter to
those who let
themselves be used
by Jew-haters and
Christ-deniers.
That’s the answer.
Which is why it is
critical to reach
those who don’t yet
understand, or who
are on the fence.

When I attended the
Evangelicals for
Middle East
Understanding
conference in
California last
fall, the only
speaker I felt who
lives in reality is
Botrus Mansour,
director of Nazareth
Baptist School.

Mansour would
certainly not agree
with me about many
things, but he did
say something
profound and
enlightening. He
said there are two
kinds of people in
the world: those who
believe man is
inherently good, and
those who believe
man to be inherently
bad.

He’s spot-on, of
course. What we have
to hope and pray for
is a growing
awareness that the
latter condition is
the accurate one.

Word came this
weekend that
“rebels” in Syria
were fighting
government forces in
Damascus. This is
obviously quite
significant, since
dictators caught in
their own capitols
often don’t fare
well (see Hitler,
Adolf).

Many have wondered
why Obama and NATO
haven’t
intervened/interfered
in Syria, as they
did in Libya (and,
indirectly, Egypt).
We can only
speculate, but a
clue lies in the
geo-political
situation in Libya,
ruled with an iron
fist by Muammar
Gaddafi. The
cartoonish Libyan
was more like a
tribal chieftan, and
his loyalists would
have held out much
longer against the
Muslim
Brotherhood-inspired
“rebels” fighting
against Tripoli…had
not NATO and Obama
been so hell-bent on
removing Gaddafi.

Hauled-out and shot,
Mussolini-style,
last October,
Gaddafi passed from
the scene as a
chilling Muslim
horde moved across
the sands of the
Middle East.

In Syria, however,
Bashar Al-Assad
(himself a
mass-murderer) is
more of a secular
autocrat whose
loyalists make up
only about 10
percent of the
population. Assad,
an Alawite (a branch
of Islam) who,
perhaps surprisingly
to many, has been
relatively easy on
Syrian Christians,
has been allowed to
continue in
power—savagely
murdering his own
citizens in the
year-long
uprising—because, in
my opinion, he was
going to fall
without Western
intervention.

If he killed 10,000
men, women, and
children, well, tsk,
tsk.

Gaddafi had to be
removed much more
quickly in order for
the Brotherhood to
come to power.

In Syria, once the
inevitable happens
and Assad is strung
up by his heels, the
conditions will
exist for the Muslim
Brotherhood to rule
that country. We
know where that
leaves Israel.

The Jerusalem Post
reported that:

“Russia will not
oppose the departure
of Syria's President
Bashar Assad if such
a move is a result
of a dialogue
between Syrians
themselves and is
not enforced through
external pressure,
Russian
Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said
on Saturday.”

No matter who lands
in power in Syria,
Russia intends to be
a player for the
duration.
Interesting, in
light of Ezekiel
38,39.

Because Assad was
similar to Hosni
Mubarak of Egypt,
Jordan’s King
Abdullah and, to
some extent, Saddam
Hussein, he was
content to be a
menace to Israel,
but not a lethal
threat. The new
rulers of Middle
East countries will
be much more like
the Iranian
mullahs—religious
psychopaths who do
have lethal
intentions for
Israel.

The passing of the
Assad regime in
Damascus provides
the framework for
the next rulers to
unwittingly bring
Isaiah 17 to pass.

That’s tongue-in-cheek, of course—barely. I’ve written
before about what I
am calling the “War
on Bible Prophecy,”
and the truth is, I
could write about it
endlessly, because
it is so pervasive
in American
evangelical circles
today.

Never thought you’d read a statement like that, did you?

I didn’t, either.

This is not a mystery. The future scenario outlined by God
in Genesis 3—the
enmity between the
woman and her Seed,
and the serpent and
his seed—is clearly
played-out today, as
the world loathes
both Israel and the
Messiah.

So then, a key battleground in this long war against Israel
is the current
direct attack on
Bible prophecy.

In his book, The Emerging Church, Dan Kimball makes the
following statement:

“The basis of learning has shifted from logic and rational,
systematic thought
to the realm of
experience. People
increasingly long
for the mystical and
the spiritual rather
than the evidential
and fact-based faith
of the modern soil.”

A couple points. Those young people today who are leaning
in this direction
are doing so because
Dan Kimball and his
friends are pushing
them in that
direction with their
mystical teachings.
Secondly, his
comment of course is
heavily biased;
there are also
plenty of people
left who will
respond to that
approach that
Emergents so hate,
the “evidential and
fact-based”
apologetic that
worked so well the
last 2,000 years,
between the time of
Christ and the
apostles…and Dan
Kimball.

At a Catalyst Conference in March, 2011, speaker Christine
Caine said, “God is
still in the miracle
business today.”

He certainly is, but the problem for Caine and her friends
in Emergent is that
they so dislike the
eschatology of their
parents and
grandparents that
they are ignoring
the biggest miracle
in our world today:
the fulfillment of
predictive prophecy,
centered around of
course Israel.

Emergents (Caine might dispute that she is Emergent, but
the fact is, she
pals-around with
tons of them) hate
Bible prophecy
because it pushes
against their own
understanding of
prophecy: man can
save himself and is
carving-out a
glorious future.

This latter view is in direct contrast to the biblical
view, which is
crystal clear: the
Savior must return
to prevent man from
destroying himself.
Of course, if you
are a Purpose-Driven
pastor or follower
drunk on your own
accomplishments,
this is a hateful
view!

Let me digress just for a moment, and attempt to show you
what we are up
against, in the
battle for the
hearts and minds of
young people—all of
whom could find the
freedom they so long
for, in the God of
the Bible.

Brad Lomenick, who leads the Catalyst team (www.catalystspace.com), periodically lists people he’d love
to meet. A few
months ago, he
published another
list, and added a
list from his
assistant, Michelle
Hoeft. Among the
folks they’d love to
have dinner with:

•Nelson Mandela (hugger of dictators and quasi-Marxist)

•Richard Branson (maverick businessman)

•Melinda Gates (wife of Bill Gates)

• Malcolm Shabazz (Malcolm X grandson)

• Michelle Obama

• J.K. Rowling (“Harry Potter” author)

• Zach Galifianakis (profane comedian)

• Eminem (profane rock star)

Why are Brad
Lomenick and
Michelle Hoeft
encouraging young
people to follow
such people? The
answer in part is
that they want to
prove that they are
relevant and the
farthest thing from
stodgy.

Problem is, those change-agents listed above do not have a
biblical worldview,
and the world loves
them. Please read
James 4:4 and
meditate on it:

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
the
friendship of
theworld is enmity with
God? whosoever
therefore
will be a friend of
the
world is
the enemy of God.”

Also note 1 Corinthians 15:33:

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”

Hey, guess what? Bad company corrupts good company. This is practical,
real-life stuff that
should be taught to
young people. The
Bible is, among
other things, a
practical-living
guide from the Lord.

Our young people today are taught instead that we should follow after
rock stars, mystics,
and political
change-agents.

How sad.

An off-shoot conference effort from Leadership Network (the
engine-driver for
Catalyst) is “The
Nines.” In
September, 2009, it
was announced:

“The NINES will be held at your desk, on your computer screen, all day,
on 9/9/09 (that's
the Tuesday after
Labor Day).

“The NINES will feature over 70 phenomenal speakers and leaders of
innovation all
across the Church.
Each speaker will
have 9 minutes to
give their message,
so the content will
be focused and
practical - not a
lot of fluff!

Problem is, guys
like Driscoll and
Ortberg have a
skewed view of
eschatology, and
they are influencing
many people.

In his landmark
book, The Emergent
Church: Undefining
Christianity, Bob
DeWaay explains
clearly just how
Emergents view
eschatology. His
book is one I’d
highly recommend.

You see, for
example, Ortberg
(pastor of Menlo
Park Presbyterian
Church in
California) not only
attended the odious
“Christ at the
Checkpoint”
conference recently,
he once taught at
Willow Creek Church,
where
pro-Palestinian
founders Bill and
Lynne Hybels give
the stage to various
left-leaning
speakers.

In a July 23, 2002
letter to President
Bush, several
left-leaning
religious leaders
urged him to support
a Palestinian state;
Ortberg was a
signatory.

Driscoll, of course,
has made his views
on the Rapture known
far and wide, and he
also practices
(oddly enough, I
think) Reformed
Theology, never a
friend of Israel or
Bible prophecy.

So, my friends, this
is a tiny part of
what we’re up
against. The forces
arrayed against the
teaching of Bible
prophecy are deeply
networked,
motivated,
well-financed, and
aggressively opposed
to that “old-time
religion.”